Friday, 26 July 2013

The next recipe from Zespri's Ramadhan collection is this Zespri Kiwifruit and Lime Soda with Basil Seeds. Basil seeds is biji selasih in Malay and when soaked, it will plump up looking like frog eggs :p

When I was really young around 8 years of age, there's this junkfood stall outside my school gate. They usually have 2 variety of drinks each day and the multi colour drinks of pink, red, orangey etc fascinates me all the time. I would never know how they tasted like cos my parents who dislike us to eat junkfood never gave us any pocket money. The first time, I see these "frog eggs" floating in the drinks that my friends are drinking, I asked them what they were and they told me "frog eggs"!!! Being the naive one, I really do believe them, yes I do! They spun the story of the drink seller actually scoop up the eggs from the drain and the silly me actually did bought it! Why? Cos I used to climb inside that drain to catch fish and tadpoles hahaha plus it's not helping that we also learnt about the frog's life cycle at that age. In the diagram, there were picture of frog eggs :p

It was only much later in my early teens that my dad bought some of these basil seeds to make drinks for us. He told us to watch some magic show that he's going to perform lol where the seeds will transform into frog eggs! Hey by then, we're not that naive anymore hahahaha. So that was when I know they're known as biji selasih.

For this refreshing concoction, you can see in the photo that there were some kaffir lime (limau purut in Malay) slices as they did not just make the drink looked prettier but added some slight bitter citrusy flavour in this drink. It is advisable not to squeeze in the juice as it will make your drink taste bitter. Try it for breaking of fast to quench your thirst or serve it to your guests during Raya open house.

Click on the recipe card above to view a larger version on my flickr album